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The return of a tasty island vintage

Winemaker Gerard Bentryn loads a bottling machine as helpers label and pack bottles full of strawberry wine for the first time in three years.

— image credit: JIM BRYANT photo

Bainbridge Vineyards bottles its first strawberry wine in three years.

Karen Selvars fields are sprouting a cover crop of weeds as her once-sprawling strawberry plants retreat for the winter.

But her summer harvest continues to blaze red in bottles trundling off an old conveyor belt under winemaker Gerard Bentryns watchful eye.

This is the first time in three years weve had our strawberry wine, the owner of Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery said Thursday, as he wiped a drop of glue from a freshly-labeled bottle.

There was a bad crop on the island for two years, and then the city wouldnt let us make wine here for a year, Bentryn said. We could have bought (fruit) off-island, but Im stubborn. If it says Bainbridge on the label then it ought to have Bainbridge in the bottle.

For the islands last commercial strawberry grower, the 400 cases of wine mean an expanded market for her crop.

Its like a second harvest, Selvar said. And economically, its really good. Gerard pays a good rate and Im glad I had all the extra berries. I know theres a lot of people that like this strawberry wine.

The wine was so popular that in years past, customers would flock to the winery as soon as the bottles were corked.

It was enormous, Bentryn said. We had lines to the highway and sometimes wed sell out in a week.

But the dozen friends and volunteers who turned out to help cap, cork, label and box the wine are also guaranteed a few bottles.

Its so good, said Jenny Greiter, who has helped at the winery since 1988. Its like strawberry juice with a kick.

Bentryn is proud of what goes into each bottle.

Its a pound and a quarter of whole, fresh strawberries picked once a year, right here, he said.

His wife and winery co-owner, JoAnn Bentryn, is also proud of what doesnt go into each bottle.

Theres no water added, no apple juice, no grape juice, no flavorings to beef it up, she said. When you taste it, its like liquid strawberry. Like a fresh strawberry, its not that sweet. It has a little tart. Its refreshing and has some bite.

Carl Marino, a recent transplant from Arizona, hasnt tried the wine yet; hes here more for a days worth of honest work. Recently retired from a technical support position at the Glendale school district, Marino came out from behind a computer and moved to Bainbridge to put in many long days picking and pressing the winerys grapes.

One word: genuine, Marino said as he loaded an empty bottle onto a rumbling conveyor belt. Some make wine by chemistry. Here, its what the weather and the soil give them.

While the elements are sometimes unpredictable, so is the winerys bottling machine.

Two bottles Marino had just loaded wedged themselves under the machines filling spouts.

Gerard Bentryn hit a switch and the old stainless steel rig stopped growling.

We call him Tony Canelli, said island farmer and volunteer bottler Betsey Wittick, as she points to the Italian-made machines tarnished Canelli brand label. Usually we get along better with him.

With duct-tape and napkins padding bottles on the increasingly rough-running machine, Wittick says its more than cantankerousness thats slowing the bottling process.

Its punishing us because it knows what Gerard is going to do, she said, eyeing the warehouse door. Outside sits a new bottling machine shining under a plastic tarp.

Tonys being like Hal, the evil computer from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Wittick said. Gerard...what are you doing? she said, imitating Hals eerie computer voice. It knows Gerard is getting rid of it.

But a new machine means Bentryn has renewed hope for a steady flow of strawberry wine for years to come.

For Selvar, the stacks represent a measure of support for an island tradition.

Sometimes I feel like the lone duck, she said. There used to be strawberry farms all over. After the (Japanese-American) internment, a lot of growers lost their farms. Some continued until the 80s, like the Filipinos, growing old varieties like the Rainiers and the Hoods.

I know its a challenge. But Ill stick with it because its what I do.

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